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Guilford County Schools officials hope to start meeting with about 200 educators, parents, government leaders and others in March as it drafts design guidelines for new schools.

The district's facilities department has less than three months to develop these standards before a May 6 school construction bond referendum.

"It's a relatively tight time frame so we've got to stay on task with it," said Joe Hill, the district's facilities consultant.

The department has hired New Orleans-based Planning Alliance to coordinate the process; the school system is paying the consultant $80,000. The firm's director, Sue Robertson, will oversee the workshops, starting in early March, Hill said.

Planning Alliance has developed specifications for several North Carolina schools, including Charlotte-Mecklenburg, Lee and New Hanover counties

The specifications would define standards for class sizes, athletics facilities, technology and other areas.

The district also intends to update its seven-year-old design guidelines, which focus on infrastructure, including heating and cooling systems, plumbing and roofs.

The overall goal of these guidelines is to cut construction costs.

The district currently plans schools individually and is vulnerable to lobbying by those building the schools and those moving in.

The new standards would determine how most schools are built, and the design guidelines would cut out some of the "frills," officials have said.

Guilford County commissioners have approved placing $45 million on one bond referendum for the reconstruction of Eastern Guilford High School, which was destroyed by fire in 2006.

A separate bond includes $412.3 million for 27 other projects.

Hill said he did not know what other opportunities for public input would be available outside of the workshops. The Board of Education would have to approve the guidelines.

"The reason we called this group of stakeholders is they represent a broader group of people," he said. "When you get too large a group, it just becomes unmanageable."

Contact Morgan Josey Glover at 373-7078 or morgan.josey@news-record.com